


Thoughts on the Societal Background of Imagery in Harry Potter: The Hogwarts Houses

by tintenklex



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Discussion, Essay, Gryffindor, Hogwarts Houses, Hufflepuff, Meta-Fiction, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Train of Thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-25 03:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17716781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tintenklex/pseuds/tintenklex
Summary: The characterization of the four Hogwarts Houses does at first glance serve a simple purpose: It sorts the characters of a children's novel into very good, good, alright and downright evil. In this essay, however, I'd like to contemplate about the historical and societal context of the imagery that is associated with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin House.





	Thoughts on the Societal Background of Imagery in Harry Potter: The Hogwarts Houses

The characterization of the four Hogwarts Houses does at first glance serve a simple purpose: It sorts the characters of a children's novel into very good, good, alright and downright evil. In this essay, however, I'd like to contemplate about the historical and societal context of the imagery that is associated with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Syltherin House.

First of all, I want to conceptualise the sorting of Hogwarts students into four houses as a form of _classification_. Classification is a way of organizing our perceptions of the world. It is useful to tell different kind of phenomena apart and to arrange them in proper order (Durkheim/Mauss 1987). A common example would be the distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates in biology. Classification is a central concept of science and is used to arrange knowledge in all sorts of contexts, whether they be scientific or not.

For example, the philosophers of ancient Greece used classification to characterise the phenomena they studied. Plato sorted the society of his time (appr. 400 BC) in three different classes, due to the social position of its members. There was a _ruling class_ , a _fighting class_ and a _laborious class_ : the nobles, the soldiers and the peasants and manufacturers (which were grouped into one class). To these classes, he aligned certain virtues: wisdom, bravery and calmness (Schmidt 2009). Already sound familiar?

Granted, there are only three classes in Platos conception, compared to four Hogwarts Houses. But – in my opinion – there are nevertheless some analogies between Platos classification and the characterizations of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin House. (At this juncture, I'd like to mention that I think that the assignment of character traits depending on ones position in society, such as Plato does it, can have highly problematic consequences. But right at this point, I'm not going to focus on the normative implications that Platos model surely has.)

_Gryffindor House_

The most obvious connection between Platos statements and the description of the four Houses in the Harry Potter series is probably the one between Gryffindor House, bravery and knighthood – that is, some form of premodern military. The classification of Plato links soldiership to bravery. Gryffindor House values bravery above all else, and was also founded by someone who (with great likelihood) was a knight, due to the possession of his sword – that is to say, he was a medieval soldier.

Furthermore, we learn later in the books that Gryffindor refused to fight muggles with his wand, because it would have given him an unfair advantage over them. Instead, he insisted to fight them with his sword. From the view of his friend Salazar Slytherin, this might have been downright stupid, but it makes a lot of sense if one assumes that Godric Gryffindors perception of the world might have been framed by something as _honor culture_. This is a sociological concept used to describe a specific mindset and action pattern. Honor culture was prevalent in premodern society and belongs to a society that is characterized by strong familial bonds, a weak lawful authority, a high rank of the nobility and a very traditional understanding of masculinity, including the value of physical strength (Campbell/Manning 2014). So this might explain why Gryffindor was conceptualized as someone who would duel with a sword.

Furthermore, the lion, which is the symbol of Gryffindor House, is “a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour [...]” (wikipedia.org, 09.02.2019). Therefore, my first conclusion is that Gryffindor House is in its imagery an allusion to the historical societal estate that has been the premodern military.

_Hufflepuff House_

Going back to Plato, there has been the class of laborious people which are conceptualized as being calm and mindful. Well, that very much sounds like Hufflepuff House, doesn't it?

Hufflepuffs are said to be hard workers, just, true and loyal. To put it a bit cynically, loyalty (towards their masters) is a very useful trait in those who are being ruled – as were the peasants and manufacturers in ancient Greece. In the description of this house, there is no ambition to be found as there is in Slytherin House, probably because the class that is alluded to by this imagery wasn't _supposed to be_ ambitious.

Hufflepuffs are also said to be patient which is bordering on enduring, and that is exactly – again, cynically put – what you might wish for in someone who is below you in the social hierarchy. That is not to say that the virtues associated with Hufflepuff House are bad or in any way inferior, nor that they are obedient _per se_. But I'd like to propose the idea that they stem from a historical context in which they were used to suppress the working masses.

Also, Hufflepuff House is often associated with food. Depictions of Hufflepuff sometimes remind of harvest festivals, which are also connected to the peasantry. The Cup of Helga Hufflepuff might be a symbolism for wine or wine harvest, which is work done by rural workers. In my opinion, Hufflepuff House is more akin to the peasant side of the working class than to the manufacturers, which is something Plato grips in one. But it could be argued that Rowling used her symbolism ecclestically, and I think that the imagery she uses for Hufflepuff House alludes to the peasantry and rural workers. Furthermore, the fact that Helga Hufflepuff wanted her house to be open to everybody, no matter where somebody was from could allude to the division of nobility and commoners – with Hufflepuff House as a house for the commoners.

The badger is one of the two mammals representing a House in the Hogwarts crest. It is an animal that lives on the _ground_ , which is quite symbolic in the context I hope to outline. First of all, the badger is not able to leave the ground as for example is the eagle (as we will later see, it is quite fitting that Ravenclaw House has a bird as its animal). The badger is, in my opinion, supposed to symbolize down-to-earthness, which fits the mindset outlined for Hufflepuffs, but also alludes (in a way of stereotypical thinking) to the peasantry. It is not only an animal living on the ground as is the lion or the snake, but it lives _in_ the ground as well (although I think this is true for some snakes as well). This could highlight the specific connection of Hufflepuff House to the element earth, which would sustain the thesis that Hufflepuff alludes in some respect to the peasantry – or, as I should say more correctly: to the _idea_ of the peasantry.

_Ravenclaw and Slytherin House_

Following Plato, we would only have one more House, which is the nobility. In the Hogwarts typology, however, we have four. Here is how I think some of Platos typology can nevertheless be found in the conception of four houses:

Plato entertained the idea, that in a perfect state, a philosopher would be king. This would, in his opinion, lead to a just society, because it is the philosophers work to determine what is good. Now, this idea was never set into practice. But I think it is plausible to link Ravenclaw House with the profession of philosophers, as wisdom is their primary virtue, followed by learning and creativity. Their mind 'flies up into great heights', metaphorically speaking, and that's why a bird as an animal makes perfectly sense for Ravenclaw House.

And Slytherin House?

Now, Slytherins are said to crave for power. Whose task is it to exercise power? Exactly, the ruling class. At Platos time, there was no difference between the male nobility and the ruling politicians. It was a societal group of its own, the one I think Slytherin House alludes to. Slytherins are said to be ambitious, cunning and ruthless, traits that are – again, I'm phrasing it a bit cynically – useful if one wants to rule other people.

What about the snake? In pre-christian religions, the snake often was a symbol for wisdom. But with the rise of christianity, the snake became associated with different, often negative, qualities.

As I interpret it, the symbol of the snake became linked with a supposedly 'wicked' kind of intelligence, of being seductive and sly. (It has also been associated with femininity, which in my mind could point to misogynist perceptions of womanhood throughout and after the middle ages. But the association of traditionally 'male' virtues to Gryffindor House and supposedly 'female' traits to Slytherin House maybe is a topic for another essay).

For now, I hope to have stimulated a thought process on the societal and historical background of the imagery used in the description of the four Hogwarts Houses. I'm excited to know what you guys think!

 

References:

Campbell, Bradley/Manning, Jason (2014): Microaggression and Moral Cultures, in: Comparative Sociology, 13, pp. 692-726.

Durkheim, Emile/Mauss, Marcel (1987): Über einige primitive Formen von Klassifikation. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der kollektiven Vorstellungen I, in: Durkheim, Emile: Schriften zur Soziologie der Erkenntnis, Suhrkamp: Frankfurt/Main, pp. 171-194.

Schmidt, Heinrich (2009): Platon, in: Philosophisches Wörterbuch. Begründet von Heinrich Schmidt, neu herausgegeben von Martin Gessmann, Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, pp. 564-567.

Lion (heraldry) on wikipedia.org, 09.02.2019: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_%28heraldry%29.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think about the socio-historical origins of symbols, which is how this essay came about to be. I'm aware that not all ideas proposed in this essay are consistent, but I'd like to introduce them as a starting point for comtemplation and discussion.


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